The Beginning of the End
by ToothyOne
Summary: For the Items to work they need a soul to be sealed away inside them. When one friend betrays the other, trouble awaits both of them, but could it bring them closer?
1. Chapter 1 Betrayal

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters used in this story, or I wouldn't be writing fan fiction!!  
  
Authors Note: This is a prequel for 'The End of It All'. If you haven't read it, then READ IT AND REVIEW!!! : P Oh, and review this one too! Oh, and indicates Bakura's thoughts. Just thought you guys should know. Toothy one   
  
The Beginning of the End  
  
Chapter One - Betrayal  
  
Bakura sat silently in the back of the bar, sipping slowly at his warm spiced wine , dark brown eyes flitting across the inhabitants of the dungeon he had himself occupied since he had been old enough to walk. His father had brought him here every night to escape from Mother's rage attacks. He remembered those all too well to suit him. She'd get a red glint in her eyes and start throwing things and attacking everything within arms reach with the sharp blade that Father used to cut reeds to remake the furniture she wrecked. Bakura shook his head to clear the memory. That was in the past now, and he was not here to reminisce tonight. Tonight, Bakura had a purpose, and heaven help anyone who got in his way this time...  
  
Outside, sand beat at the walls of the small building as a storm worked its way towards the town, meaning that either more people would leave or they would stay longer, depending on how drunk they were. As it turned out, not many were particularly high and most left the bar before the storm came to get home to their families. Many muttered prayers to Horus and Ra to ensure a fine day tomorrow for the festival. It was not that they really wanted to celebrate the new Pharaoh- nobody liked him- but they still prayed because Priest Seto would make them turn out to the coronation whether there was a storm or not. Bakura growled a prayer under his breath, but to Anubis instead, to aid in Seto's death. It had been his dream for a long time to destroy Seto Kaiba, head priest of the Temple of Ra. They had been friends until he was chosen to be a temple guardian, and then he would not speak to Bakura as if he thought he was higher. Well, perhaps he was, but that was no reason to betray him that time when he...  
  
No! Thoughts only for the task ahead. he reminded himself sharply. Do not get distracted.   
  
There! Just outside... The boy he'd been waiting for. At last. Bakura swallowed the last of his drink and strode outside into the wind, which blew back his pale white hair and revealing the scar on his face. Sand beat at his body as he approached the boy. He rubbed absently at the mark, remembering how Seto had punished him with it...  
  
"You will be marked as the son of Set, heathen child. You can never return to the temple so long as that scar remains..."   
  
... and growled quietly. The boy was an unusual sight in these parts, though only marked out by his hair. It was a pale sandy blonde, the colour Bakura's mother's hair had been. How odd, he thought to himself.  
  
"Come inside, Marik." Bakura beckoned.  
  
"It isn't safe in there. I'll be recognised." The boy replied, half turning and waving behind him. "My house is safer. Follow me."  
  
Bakura followed obediently. Marik's friendship was vital for his plan to work. That item would be his again, and if all went well, he would have Marik's as well. Bakura smoothed a finger over his belt, where his knife was held and looked longingly at Marik's back. After being exiled from the temple, he had begun to live off more meat than he had previously been allowed, and had developed a taste for blood that his mother had said was unnatural. He had killed her for that comment, and what was he to do with the body? He giggled in his mind.  
  
The witch deserved it.   
  
The dogs would not have eaten such an infidel, but her own son would. It was rather enjoyable in a sickening way. The though almost made him retch. Memories, that's all they are, he reminded himself firmly. Forget them, and concentrate on not losing that boy in the storm. He realised suddenly that it was too late. No! A wisp of blonde hair slithered across his vision as the sand turned to black and he hit the ground with a thud. Seto's voice buzzing in his ear...  
  
"Keep away from my people, especially my students, Infidel." A swift kick in the ribs and Bakura was engulfed by darkness, as Seto laughed and led Marik away...  
  
Betrayal...the last free thought Bakura had been allowed. 


	2. Chapter 2 Bewilderment

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters used in this story, or I wouldn't be writing fan fiction!!  
  
**The Beginning of the End**  
  
Chapter 2- Bewilderment  
  
Darkness was all that Bakura could see, all he could feel, all he could taste. Velvet black corrupted his mind for hours until he thought he could stand it no more, but still it prevailed. Suspended in the darkness he fell into brooding, angry thoughts. Plans to destroy Seto and Marik for the pain they had caused him, but the thoughts were hollow. Though he hated to admit it, Bakura was frightened of this never ending black, and wanted desperately to get out and walk free again. Little did he know, though he suspected, Bakura would not be free for a very, very long time.

* * *

Marik chewed his nails nervously, hiding in the shadows of the room his Master called the Lab. Seto glanced at him occasionally and Marik snapped his hands by his sides whenever he did, though he almost wished him to see his reluctance and stop the experiment. As much as his mentor denied it, Seto loved Marik like the son that had been taken from him. Apparently he had a lot of love to give, though perhaps he should share some with the people he was entrusted with rather than smothering Marik with it all. Seto sighed as he shot another glance at his student, deep in his own thoughts and gnawing enthusiastically at his fingertips.  
  
"What is the problem, Marik?" he asked, absently smoothing the sheet over Bakura's unconscious body.  
  
"This isn't right, Seto." Marik replied simply. Seto raised a questioning brow. Marik sighed. "How can you do this to a man who has tried so hard to be accepted back into the temple? He has done you no wrong..."  
  
"But he tried. That's all that matters." Seto interrupted, turning to his small table and rummaging through the scrolls to find what he wanted.  
  
"He trusted me not to tell you, Seto. And he was once your friend. I remember that you were inseparable. But he TRUSTED me, Master, and I betrayed him." Marik went back to chewing his nails. "It's just not right, is all I'm saying." Seto paused in his search to throw a sideways glance at Marik.  
  
"Yes." He said. Marik looked up and cocked his head to one side, questioningly. "Yes, you did betray him. And you must be punished for that crime." Marik's eyes widened in fear. Seto's punishments were legendary. "But for now, you must help me. You condemn a man to death and you must do all you can to speed his release." Seto drew out a large flat box and set it on the floor before Marik.  
  
"What does it have in it, Master?" Seto did not answer, but opened the lid to reveal the six remaining Millennium Items. Marik held the seventh as a token of his authority in the temple, and Seto owned the sacred rod of Ra. But the remaining Items had been the objects of Bakura's interest for a long time and had been the prize for all his careful planning.  
  
"It's all depending on your assistance, Marik" Bakura had told him that night three weeks ago. "Come to me when it's safe. Don't let me down, friend."  
  
Marik cursed under his breath. What was his master planning?  
  
"Choose one, Marik" Seto said quietly.  
  
"I already have one, Master. I have no need for another." Seto laughed quietly.  
  
"Not for you, fool. Just pick one and hurry. My patience grows thin." Marik glanced over the sacred objects, hand hovering hesitantly over one, then another, until finally he chose the large golden ring with the pyramid symbol inside and five spikes dangling around the edges. He could have sworn his hand had been drawn to it, but didn't remember that it had been this particular Item that Bakura had been seeking until he had handed it to Seto. Then he stood back to watch his masters plan come into action.  
  
"Marik, do me a favour. Come here" Seto beckoned. Marik didn't like the glint in his mentor's eye, but came obediently up to Seto's elbow.  
  
"Yes Master?"  
  
"I told you that you would be punished for your betrayal," Seto growled in Marik's face and grabbed him roughly by the scruff of his neck. He drew the boy closer and continued. "And you will be. This procedure requires two sacrifices, and guess what? You will be one of them."  
  
"You trapped me!" Marik howled, realising that Seto had planned this all along.  
  
"Correct, little boy. You will be linked to the Rod that you hold so dearly, and Bakura will be trapped in the Ring that he lusted for. A shame, really, that you had to speak with him at all. You could have been a good priest." Seto laughed cruelly and tightened his grip on Marik's neck. "Though of course I couldn't allow you to be better than me." Marik almost cried out as Seto's short nails dug into his tender skin and watched in horror as a small glass filled with purple liquid was raised to his lips.  
  
"Why, Master...?"  
  
"Goodbye, little Marik." Seto forced the liquid down his throat and Marik's vision clouded grey before the darkness completely consumed him. 


	3. Chapter 3 Awakened

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters in this story. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction!  
  
Author's note: / indicates a thought by Marik. indicates a thought by Bakura. This is my third chapter of my third story, so I thought I'd try some new ideas out, so R&R PLEASE!  
  
The Beginning of the End.  
  
Chapter 3- Awakened.  
  
Darkness was all he knew. Darkness was all he was. There was nothing else there but a vague memory of a life long past and an unquenchable thirst for revenge. The taste of blood lingered on his lips, if only in his dreams. His life was a dream. An endless nightmare. The sort that scars a child for life and sends even the toughest men crying for their mommies. But Bakura didn't cry. Bakura didn't howl. He had lived here for so long he had BECOME the darkness. It didn't bother him. He had begun to like it, in a twisted sort of way.  
  
I cannot be destroyed, for I AM the darkness...   
  
The deprivation of all senses was the worst part. So long without the feel of wind in your hair, the smell of freshly baked bread, the taste of oven smoked fish, the sound of a woman's voice; all this can ruin a man. But the darkness was so thick that Bakura could not even feel the ground beneath his feet, or see his nose in front of him. There was nothing, and he was nothing.  
  
I AM the darkness....   
  
Two faces lingered in his mind while he was trapped in the dark abyss. One he would enjoy killing and his flesh would be burned alive and torn from his body while it still writhed with life. Seto Kaiba would die, and nothing could stop Bakura except the suspending darkness around him. Marik Ishtar was different. Of course he would die as well for his treachery; that was unless he could convince Bakura otherwise. But the boy was a sort of friend to him. The only friend he had ever had since Seto had banished him from the temple simply for attempting to eat the sacrificial lamb.  
  
I AM!! I AM! I Am. I am. I...   
  
The solitary confinement of his mind sent him mad. Bloodlust took control of him. The taste of blood grew fainter and fainter until it was completely lost and Bakura was sick with the loss of it. He tried to draw blood from his own body, but it seemed as if it, too, had dried up and disappeared like the blood on his mouth had. His tongue was dry and his sharp fangs raked restlessly along it's surface half heartedly, knowing it would draw no more of the life giving red substance than when he had tried the last four hundred or so times. It had been so long, but how long Bakura wasn't sure. Time stood still, though it still seemed to mark the boy. He grew starved and dehydrated, but he would not die. It was not possible to destroy him while he was here.  
  
I AM THE DARKNESS!!! I CANNOT BE DESTROYED!!! I AM THE DARKNESS!!! I AM I AM I AM!!!   
  
Marik huddled in the thick dark, suspended by its impenetrable black. Nothing crossed his mind. He had given up thinking millennia ago. He had given up everything- hope, fear, hate, confusion, love. Holding on to these things when deep down in your heart you know they can never be held again can eat a person's soul. Marik still had his soul. It was all he had. An empty shell comprised of subconscious thoughts and feelings. Consciously he was aware of nothing, because that was all there was. Nothing. Endless black. Darkness. At the back of his mind thoughts flashed across.  
  
/ Seto Kaiba destroyed me. Seto Kaiba, my Master, finished my life through his own jealousy. Seto Kaiba must die. /  
  
One shone brighter than the others and nudged his conscious mind, only to be pushed back into the pits of his mind again.  
  
/ Bakura. He trusted me. I destroyed him through my own lust for power. I must die. /  
  
He had tried to kill himself. It had not worked. No blood had come. No flesh had been torn. The darkness did not shift. Marik was non existent. He had no body left to destroy.  
  
/ I cannot be killed. But I must be... I must be.../  
  
The darkness shifts. The first change in its texture in longer than Bakura could remember. It swirled and pulsed. It beat at his skull until he screamed in agony. Dark red flew from where his mouth should be. Yes, his mouth was there. So was the rest of his face, and his body, and his legs. He was whole once again. Blood dribbled down his chin and he licked it up hungrily, oblivious or uncaring to the fact that it was his own, and ignoring the pain from his sliced tongue as he worked it around his lips so as not to lose any of the sweet liquid. The moment was so sudden and sweet that for the time being he didn't care to know what was happening to his dark sanctuary. But he soon asked that question to himself, and was surprised to hear his own voice echoing of unseen walls. This was no the same place he had spent the last five thousand years in. This was different. This was a place where everything was real and Bakura was alive again. That was all that mattered. If he lived, then it meant he had the opportunity to finally get his revenge on Seto Kaiba. To finally taste victory. The taste of the Priest's blood.  
  
The first taste of light hit Marik like a slap and made him squint, scrunching up his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. The sensation was welcomed like an old friend and wonderful after so long feeling numb. Attempting to open his eyes again, Marik surveyed his surroundings curiously.  
  
/ This place... It looks so familiar... /  
  
Looking down at himself he was relieved to see that he hadn't aged a day since he had been trapped. It would make his death seem more appropriate. Staring down at his clenched hands and the pale veins showing in his wrists he considered his options. He looked around himself again. A darkly stained brick room surrounded him and a low opening led out into an equally dim hallway. A low bed with thin covers squatted in the corner, and under the pillow...  
  
/ Pillow? How did I know that? I've never seen one of those things before... and how do I know it's for sleeping on? /  
  
... was the glint of a sharp blade. It was tempting Marik in a way that nobody but a child in an unattended candy store would understand. He stepped towards it, but with a strange reluctance. He was free again. Alive. Did he really want to give that all away because of a boy who was condemned to death anyway? Hadn't Seto told him that a condemned man should be aided to speed his end and make it easier for his passing? It was one lesson he had remembered well. Very well. After all, he had had five millennia to brood over his lessons.  
  
/ Brood. Lose hope. Lose myself. Lose everything. I had nothing. Now it's all mine again. I can have it all. No point in dying now. No... Bakura would understand. He doesn't have the chance not to. /  
  
Marik laughed silently to himself as his dark hand reached out and took hold of the object under the pillow and examined it. The laugh echoed around in the depths of his mind and morphed into a sort of evil sneer. Not a blade, no. Marik let out a frenzied laugh, this time out loud, and a tear dropped on the Millennium Rod he now held clenched in his fist.  
  
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS! TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR THE GOOD STUFF! MARIK AND BAKURA UNLEASHED ON THE WORLD, BUT THERE'S A SLIGHT TWIST TO THE STORY AS YOU KNOW IT.... Toothy One 


	4. Chapter 3 Rebirth

Disclaimer- I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters used in this story except Kuraiya.

Author's note- Well, I didn't get any reviews for my last chapters, but I'm still going… Is there really any point? No, not really, but I'm enjoying writing this so whether you lot like it or not I'M GONNA KEEP GOING ANYWAY… But that doesn't mean I don't want reviews so be nice and send me some… please?

The Beginning of the End

Chapter 4- Chaos

Little Yugi screamed and writhed in his grasp. Pharaoh howled with anger and beat at the glass walls of his prison until his hard fists ached, and still Yugi screamed.

"Yami! Help me Atemu! Please!"

"Yugi…" Pharaoh gulped and renewed his useless onslaught on the walls around him. Faintly he heard the attacker's laugh as a knife appeared in its hand and it drew the blade across Yugi's throat. Not enough to kill him, just to draw his blood. Just to cause him pain. The attacker leant down over the whimpering boy and lapped up his sweet blood, his hood dropping back in the process and revealing silver white hair and a double crossed crucifix scar on his cheek.

"Tomb Robber!" Pharaoh screamed and bashed harder against the walls. In an instant they shattered and he fell face down into the dark shadows surrounding them and was lost. Faintly behind him he heard Yugi's screaming voice.

"Yami!" Closer now, and calmer…

"Yami!" Right in his ear…

"Yaaaaaamiii….. Wake up Pharaoh… Wake up… This is your last chance…" Not Yugi's voice. Bakura's. The voice of the devil.

"No…" Yami whispered, lingering between dream and reality.

"I'm back, Atemu." Pharaoh screamed and woke up entirely, realising at once that Bakura's return was not only a dream. Lunging for the knife he kept beside his bed and dodging Bakura's at the same time he somehow managed to grab the blade and turn to face his opponent. His invisible opponent. He blinked in surprise. It seemed like it had been another dream, but Pharaoh was sure that Bakura's spirit has returned to haunt him, and more insane than before. He gulped back the bile that had risen into his mouth and dried his face with the back of his hand. At least he would be ready.

"Ryou…"

"Who are you?"

"I am you, Ryou." Laughter echoed through the boy's mind. It sent a shiver up his spine.

"You are no part of me. Get out of my head." He tried to keep his thoughts calm, but his own mind would not lie to itself. Ryou was terrified of this voice that had invaded his brain, and it showed in his mind-voice. The invader laughed again.

"That Ring will never leave your neck, sweetheart. Never." Ryou knew that the voice did not lie as it said this, and he couldn't help but let a whimper escape his mouth.

"That's right." The voice crooned. "Be afraid of me. You should be. I am very worthy of your fear, little Ryou." Darkness took a cold grasp of his mind and in moments he had lost control of his body to the fiend.

"No…"

Marik examined his new body thoughtfully. It was surprising that he hadn't changed a bit in the several thousand years that he knew must have passed since he had been sealed in the Rod by Kaiba.

"Still just as beautiful." He giggled to himself, running a loving hand through his platinum blonde hair.

"And still with my same conniving mind. That will come in handy." Standing and stretching his long legs he yawned and strutted out of the tiny room, only to be stopped by…

"Sister?"

"Marik… What have you done?"

"What? I don't know what you…" He followed where she was pointing and saw their father dead on the ground, the Millenium Rod protruding from his chest and his neck on an awkward angle.

"Oh Ra…" He breathed. "Was that me…?"

Ishizu saw the fear in his eyes and embraced him quickly.

"You've changed, Marik. What's happened to you, dear brother?"

A wave of pain washed through his head and he heard a voice coming from his mouth that was not his. It was deeper and more sinister.

"Ishizu, my dear. A lot can change when you're locked away for a millennia in your own mind."

Then the pain was gone and Marik stepped back, reeling. Ishizu was crying.

"It has taken you, then, dear brother Marik. Please… just fight it." And she bolted from the room. Marik leant down to retrieve the Rod from his father's body and wondered what had just happened. So many things had changed since he had been alive, and yet his sister was also here with him and his father was dead by his hands.

"Dear Marik. You are lost. Let me guide you." The voice laughed in his mind.

"Leave me alone, you fiend."

"Oh, but Marik, you are alone. So hopelessly alone." The voice continued to laugh and Marik doubled over in the pain it brought him. "You are free now, Marik. Will you keep me prisoner when you know yourself what it is like to be locked away in darkness?"

"Yes, I am free. I can do what I want now. I have no need of you any more, fiend."

"Fool." Blackness covered Marik's sight and his other took control of him. Nobody could have predicted how much chaos Marik's refusal to cooperate would cause.


End file.
